1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lawn game apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lawn games have been devised and played as a means of entertainment for many years. Perhaps the most commonly recognized lawn game is croquet, which employs stakes and wire hoops driven into the ground to form a playing circuit. Each player has a wooden ball and a mallet for striking the ball to send it through the hoops and into contact with the stakes.
Other games and apparatus of this nature are described in U.S. patents. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 269,351 discloses a game of lawn pool having cups which are secured to the ground (either at ground level or raised by an elongated stake). Each cup has an upper surface upon which a ball rests and in playing the game, a player attempts to knock all the balls off of all the cups in succession with another ball driven across the ground by a mallet.
Another patent employing balls and targets is U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,570. Each target of this patent consists of a stake driven into the ground which has a bell-like cylinder hanging from its upper end. The game is played by players attempting to contact selected targets with a ball driven across the ground by a mallet so that each cylinder will strike its stake and produce a sound indicative of the fact that the target has been hit by the ball.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,520,392 also describes a game target, but the object used to strike the target in this game is a disc rather than a ball. In this patent, the target consists of a pin and a base. A spike on the underside of the base is driven into the lawn so that a flat top surface of the base is positioned on a horizontal plane facing upwardly. The pin has a flat bottom surface and is placed for play on the flat top surface of the base. The game is played by players attempting to knock down the pins with the disc. Additional lawn games employing balls and targets are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,024,024 and 4,248,428.
The present invention differs from the prior art lawn games in several respects. The mallet used in striking the balls of the present invention is formed so that the balls may be imparted with loft when playing the game. Each upright target of the present invention is formed to be slidably retained on an upwardly extending portion of its base and the targets are assigned different values which cooperatively indicate the order of play of the game. Each player or team has a plurality of balls with which to play the game rather than just one, so that the mallet, value-bearing targets, and plurality of balls provide apparatus wherein a game can be played employing rules which increase the interest and entertainment value of the game. The game apparatus of the present invention is simple of construction and design, thus providing an easily played and economical game of entertainment.